I picked up a new 10MM Valor today. Very nice pistol, It looked perfect at the gun store, but when I got it home and made a more through inspection, I found a machining scar across the surface of the slide near the firing pin. I guess I will be making a trip back to the store tomorrow, but after reading about the quality of the craftsmanship with this series of pistol, it is disappointing to have to deal with something that should have been caught by the machinist when the part was made. Other than that, the slide was smooth and tight, the trigger pull is very nice, and the outer finish was excellent.

It's brand new? Is it a "Blem"? They used to sell blems at one time, maybe still do, reports were that the actual blemishes were hard to find. It's been too long, but I seem to recall there being a serial number tag on blems, and tehy sold several hundred dollars below normal price.

A: The store had nothing to do with the "problem". Leave them out of it.
B: Sending it back to the manufacturer just makes them spend money on a non-issue (if they even do anything about it), which drives up the cost of future purchases.

It's fine.
Shoot it and move on with life.
Don't be anal-retentive about trivial crap like a minor machining mark that doesn't affect function and can't even be seen unless you're looking for it.

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Don't even try it. It's even worse than the internet would lead you to believe.

$1,500 dollar gun, I wouldn't be too happy either. Thus the reason I always inspect before taking it home.

Even though it won't affect function or maybe it won't seeing how the brass is going to be sliding across that imperfection during ejection, I would demand perfection for that kind of dollar spent.

Since you left the gun shop with it, it's pretty much now on the manufacturer to take care of you. Exactly the reason they have their warranty so I'd make use of it. May be some time without your new purchase but in the end it will be worth it and you'll be glad you did.

I am the kind of guy that never gets rid of any gun I buy. The only time that a slight imperfection on the breech face would bother me is if I was going to sell it. That is when the potential buyer, who normally wouldn’t care at all about the mark would make a big deal about it to try to knock down the selling price. The outside of the gun is perfect, and as was pointed out, sending it back to the factory may leave me with a slide that is not mated as well to the frame as this one seems to be, or worse, they just buff out the breech face that leaves a slight depression in the face. I haven’t shot it yet, so if they were willing to just make an even trade for a different new one, then I will do it. Otherwise, I’ll just live with it. And make a much greater effort inspecting my next pistol before I walk out the door. Sadder but wiser. Thank you all for your input.

I've inspected lots of guns before purchase and like to think I'm fairly good at it. But I easily see how something like this could easily be missed. You just wouldn't expect a big tool mark on the breech face. The mark would bother me unless I had bought the pistol at a steep discount. I would send that photo to DW customer service. They would likely replace that slide for you unless that pistol was a blem because of that mark.

As a machinist I would not be happy about that either and I would be loathe to let something like that leave my shop.

On the other hand you still have well over 90% case support on the breech so if their engineering/QC decided it was safe and you bought it as a blem then that's all there is to it.

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As a follow-up on this issue with this pistol, I purchased this pistol from a local dealer. I purchased it as a new, first class condition pistol, not a blemished pistol. I did not pay a discounted price for the pistol. I ordered it from him, it came in, and I bought it. When I discovered the issue, I went back and asked if he could help. He didn’t have another one in stock, so he said he would see what he could do. Long story short, he got another one in, called me, and asked if I would want to make an exchange. I told him yes, and that I had not fired the pistol. I went back, filed out the paperwork, and made the exchange. He would send the pistol back to the factory to have them repair it. The point to the story is that while you may find a better price on line, doing business in person face to face has value. The dealer did right by me, and he did it to keep earning my business. Will I go back to him? You bet.

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